This invention relates to the preparation of flights carried out by aircraft and more particularly a method and a support device for aiding in the preparation and management of missions carried out by aircraft.
Preparation of a flight in order to set up a flight plan in its entirety is an essential task for an aircraft pilot in order to ensure operation of the aircraft in complete safety. Preparation of a flight takes into consideration several aspects such as the characteristics of the aircraft, the route taken, the goods and persons transported as well as the flight conditions, in particular the meteorological parameters.
Thus, for example, the quantity of fuel and the minimum and maximum takeoff and landing distances are calculated in particular according to the scheduled flight, the load of the aircraft, and meteorological conditions. It sometimes happens that it is necessary to modify the flight plan when an event, such as the closing of an airport because of bad weather, takes place. It then is the responsibility of the pilot to adjust the parameters used.
Preparation of a flight generally is the responsibility of the pilot. However, if up until recently the latter prepared his flights himself, he is increasingly aided by a team on the ground and by increasingly computerized tools.
In practice, the flight plans generally are prepared in advance, for example several days prior to the scheduled date of the flight. The flight plans here can be documents filled out beforehand by the operating center comprising in particular the dates of departure and arrival, the point of departure and the destination, the estimated flight time, the list of airports that can be used in the event of bad weather, the type of flight, the name of the pilot, the number of passengers, meteorological information items of the TAF (acronym for Terminal Aerodrome Forecast in English terminology) or METAR (acronym for METeorological Airport Report in English terminology) type, and aeronautical information items of the NOTAM (acronym for Notice To Air Men in English terminology) type. These information items are supplemented when new data are available.
Furthermore, for commercial missions, the preparation of flights takes into consideration parameters determined according to the strategy of the airline company operating the aircraft, such as fuel consumption and wear and tear on the engines. Although these parameters are not directly linked to the flights, they influence the preparation for them.
Certain parameters determined during preparation of the missions are input into the avionics. Such parameters are, for example, mass and navigation indications such as course points, called waypoints in English terminology. Others, intended for the pilot, are essentially informative. They are displayed on separate information systems of the avionics.
The documents put together during preparation of the missions generally are electronic documents, grouped in an application called EFF (abbreviation for Electronic Flight Folder in English terminology). They are transmitted to the aircraft, directly or via a memory medium such as a USB (abbreviation for Universal Serial Bus in English terminology) key. These documents are typically of the image type, that is, the data presented cannot be used directly by a computer system.
For reasons of safety, the avionics and the data processing operating systems contained in the EFF, called OIS (abbreviation for On-board Information System in English terminology), generally are physically separate, connected by a diode allowing only the transfer of data from the avionics to the data processing operating systems. The documents put together during preparation for the mission are transmitted to the OIS. The OIS belongs to the so-called “open” world, as distinguished from the avionic world, because of the origin of the processed data.
Thus, after having validated the parameters of the mission, if need be with tools working on the EFF, the pilot must input them manually into the avionics.
FIG. 1 schematically illustrates the preparation of a mission for an aircraft. The airline company operating the aircraft 100 here has an operating center 105 comprising a database 110 relating to the strategy of the airline company, a database 115 in which the parameters of the operated aircraft are stored and a database 120 in which the parameters of the planned flight, in particular the number of passengers, the freight mass and the destinations, are stored. These databases are connected to a processing system such as a computer, a server or a set of computers or servers, generically referenced 125, for aiding in the preparation of the missions.
The processing system 125 also is connected to external databases 130, for example databases comprising meteorological information items and specific flight conditions such as zones from time to time reserved for the military or problems affecting airports, in their entirety or in part.
After having been determined, the parameters of a mission are transmitted to the corresponding aircraft 100, directly or via a medium, here a USB key 135. These parameters generally are displayed on a screen 140 of the OIS to be reviewed by the pilot. Some of these parameters can be recopied by the pilot, with or without modification, into the avionics 145, called ACS (abbreviation for Aircraft Control System in English terminology). Because of the nature of the mission documents transmitted and the absence of a link between the OIS and the ACS, these parameters are recopied manually.
When a change is to be made shortly before takeoff, for example for reasons of unavailability of the takeoff runway or specific meteorological conditions, the operating center adapts the parameters of the mission and transmits them to the pilot, in the form of electronic documents or by radio, so as to allow him to take them into consideration in order to modify the avionic parameters, if necessary.
Even if the preparation of missions is satisfactory nowadays in terms of quality, it requires a significant ground time for the aircraft, which entails an operating loss. Furthermore, the existing systems do not make it possible to easily update, on the ground or in flight, the mission parameters taking the criteria of the airline company into consideration. In particular, data-entry errors are frequent and sometimes can impair the safety of the aircraft. Thus, for example, a faulty entry of the mass of an aircraft leads to a faulty calculation of takeoff speed.
Thus there exists a need to improve the preparation and the management of missions, in particular in order to reduce the ground time of the aircraft and to improve the process of modification of the parameters used.